Get started with your first project

Once your account is created on Linarc, you can start adding and managing your company's projects on the platform. This guide explains how to activate your account and start with your first project setup.

This article is divided into the following sections: 

• Login to your account
• Create your first project
• Invite collaborators
• Create the Master Schedule 
• Setup the Project Budget
• Share mission-critical documents

Login to your account

You can log in to your account in two ways, depending on your company's enrollment policy:

• SSO:  If your company has enabled SSO, you can log in with your Google or Microsoft business account to the Linarc platform.
• Dedicated Linarc account - You will receive an invitation email once your company admin has created a Linarc account for you. The email contains your username and an account activation link.
  • Click the link in the email and setup your password

Your account gets activated and takes you to your project management console

General Contractor - The project manager of the general contractor can start a project, add collaborators, and set up the project for management. 

Architects, Engineers, Subcontractors, and Vendors - Project managers of subcontractors and vendors can directly access their projects once they accept the invite from the general contractor. Follow the steps on the page Accept Invitations to Collaborate to join a project. 

The rest of this article explains how a GC can set up its first project in Linarc. 

Create your first project

On your first login, you are taken to your project portfolio management portal, which allows you to add and manage your projects.

Follow the instructions on the page Create a project to add a new project and enter its details. 

Invite collaborators

The next step is to create the project team. You can invite architects, subcontractors, and specialty contractors of different trades, vendors, and more to participate in the project.

The 'Project Directory' allows you to add and manage collaborators. Follow the instructions on the page 'Invite Contractors and Vendors' to add collaborators to your project. 

Add plans and drawings

You can now add plans and drawings for different divisions of work to your project. This enables everyone involved in the project to access the plans from anywhere. 

Follow the instructions on the page Upload Plans to save and publish the plan sets of your project.

Create the Master Schedule 

Linarc's intuitive scheduler allows you to create a comprehensive WBS-based master schedule for the project, exhaustively covering all phases, stages, deliverables, work packages, and tasks involved in all divisions. Once you have added all task items, you can define task dependencies and assign work to respective contractors depending on the divisions and trades. 

The master schedule can be created in two ways:

• Using Linarc's scheduler – Manually add schedule items and enter their timelines, dependencies, etc. See the page explaining the creation of the master schedule for guidance.
• Import from popular scheduling software – Linarc also allows you to import your master schedule from popular third-party scheduler software like Primavera, MS Project, etc. 

Setup the Project Budget

You can set up a comprehensive project budget with contract-based cost allocations for various divisions of work covered in the scope.

See the page 'Budget and Controls' for guidance on creating and uploading the budget.

The budget serves as a baseline for cost tracking and management and assessing the financial performance of the project in the course of the project.

Share mission-critical documents

Linarc features a cloud-based centralized file repository that allows you to save and share mission-critical documents and various digital assets. The storage enables you to set up access permissions and share them with your team members.

See Files - An Overview for guidance on setting up your storage and sharing documents.

Your project is now set up. You can now assign tasks, collaboratively build the schedule, track progress and costs, monitor schedule and financial performance and manage your project.